jimbaran beach, Bali, Indonesia

Seafood restaurant on the beach, where you literally have your feet in sand (and sometimes water) as you enjoy a seafood feast. The beach was beautiful, and eating there during sunset was magical. Another new experience for us. Highly recommended!

Voyagers tips: Grab and GoJek are the Uber of Bali, but local transport organization managed to block them out of the Jimbaran area so they have monopoly here and can charge more. Our Grab driver was nice enough to wait for us while we ate so he made extra money with us while we avoided haggling with local drivers.

Very important - Many restaurants here rely on paying taxi drivers “finder’s fee” to deliver tourists to them; these restaurants serve mediocre food at outrageous prices. Unfortunately, the majority of restaurants here fall in this category and have really low Tripadvisor scores (less than 2 stars). It took quite a bit of searching to find a restaurant with high ratings, and our choice (Radja Seafood Cafe) serves up good food at very reasonable prices. Our Grab driver also tried hard to steer us to another restaurant but we didn't budge. Glad we didn't.

Plenty of surf instructors looking for students here. It's hard to tell who are better teachers. (Copy) (Copy)

Kuta Beach is a large stretch of beach with plenty of surf instructors and people eager to sell you lounge chairs.

Voyagers tips: If you’re interested in either surfing lessons or renting a lounge chair, be sure to bargain and compare prices. The first price you get is likely 3x what they’re willing to sell to you for. I’ve found the best way to get to the “true” price is by asking 2-3 vendors and make sure they know you’re comparing prices.

restaurants

These tiny dry rolls of napkins grow to be a wet napkin when dipped in the water next to it. Pretty cool. (Copy) (Copy)

Meals in restaurants in Kuta are relatively simple. (Copy) (Copy)

Avocado shakes are popular in SE Asia. (Copy) (Copy)

A typical local meal. (Copy) (Copy)

One restaurant recommended by travel vloggers had dishes covered in flies, disgusting. We left and went to this place instead, who has a shield to keep flies away from the food. (Copy) (Copy)

Warung Mina, the restaurant across the street from the hotel serves up good food. If they only had AC, the meals would be much more enjoyable. (Copy) (Copy)

Pizza at Warung Mina, also quite good. (Copy) (Copy)

Smoothie bowls are popular here. Smoothies at the bottom, fresh fruts on top, very refreshing on a hot day. (Copy) (Copy)

We found a nice Japanese restaurant just two blocks away and ate here twice. Fresh sushi, good prices. (Copy) (Copy)

Kuta is a cheaper area in Bali, and unfortunately, this fact is reflected in the quality and sanitation of many restaurants. First, it’s hard to find restaurants with AC here, and it’s just not pleasant to eat in the open heat and humidity. Second, many cheaper restaurants seem to have sanitation issues. Nice restaurants do exist here but you really need to look for them.